Lectin-Free Savory Caraway Biscotti

I’m in a mission to make healthy snacks that are easily transportable and can help us staying on track when we crave something naughty or travel and don’t have access to our own kitchen. Biscotti are such a perfect one because they are crunchy, can be sweet or savory and last for a long time.

Cheesy, crunchy, spicy and grain free

This recipe was inspired by Laura Santtini’s Caraway Biscotti from her amazing book “At Home with Umami”. Since I have experience with making grain free biscotti – in fact one of my most popular recipes on this website is the Almond Biscotti with Tigernut Flour – I was really interested to try a savory version. So when I saw Laura’s recipe in the book, I knew is not impossible to make a grain free version, even if I had to try several times. Fortunately, the experiment was a success the first time, and I’m here to share the modified recipe. I used few types of flours to make sure I get a consistency closer to the all purpose flour used in the original recipe but also to give it a balanced nutritional profile : almond, tigernut, arrowroot, green banana, and even some cassava to help with the kneading process (from my experience so far cassava is perfect for kneading and finishing a non grain dough). I could have used butter, but I decided to replace it with avocado oil because the recipe has already eggs and cheese. Oh, and replaced the whole milk with full fat coconut milk. These biscotti are cheesy and slightly spicy (I used cayenne pepper, caraway seeds and mustard powder as spices) and they go well with a quality olive oil, olives (marinated or not), I even had one with a spread of almond cream cheese (Kite Hill) and few blueberries for late breakfast, with coffee. Yesterday I had two in my bag for a lunch in a restaurant, and I had one with marinated olives and mint tea (that was my lunch and it was super satisfying). They last a long time in an air tight glass container or jar or can be frozen.

One little note about tigernut flour. I’ve used it in various recipes many times, from pancakes to cakes, to scones, to savory dishes, but there is a grittiness to it, that is bothering some of us. So now my favorite way to use it is the biscotti recipes, because the double baking process makes the texture unnoticeable.

Instructions

Mix almond, tigernut, green banana and arrowroot flours in one big bowl. Add the baking powder, salt and spices. Add the two cheeses and mix well. Add the avocado oil and mix well with your hands.

3

In a separate bowl beat the eggs and coconut milk and pour onto the dry mixture. You can do all this in a standing mixer if you want, I mixed it all with my hands. At this point, the texture might look a little too wet and sticky.

4

On a clean surface or a parchment paper add a handful of cassava flour, flouring your hand too, and start kneading the sticky dough, until it become smooth and holds together nicely. It didn't take long for me, about a small handful of cassava flour and one minute of kneading did the trick.

5

Now separate the dough in two pieces and for two logs / cigar shapes and flatten then down slightly (see pictures below). Put them on a parchment paper in a cookie baking sheet, sprinkle with the 2 tbsp of parmigiano, and bake for 30 minutes.

6

When done, turn oven down to 300F.

7

Take them out, let cool for 10-15 minutes, and carefully slice the logs at an angle. I always say this is the most sensitive part of the process, you want to do it slowly with a sharp knife to make sure the slices don't break.

8

Arrange all the slices, cut face down, on parchment paper and bake at 300F for about 40 minutes, flipping them at half time. Just keep an eye on them at the end in case your oven runs slightly higher, to make sure they don't burn.

Notes

This makes a little more than 20 biscotti, depending how you size them. Store them in an air tight glass container or mason jar, they'll last for few days on the counter. You can freeze some for later use.